CAP Meets Reality

In SAP-land, modern custom application development boils down to two frameworks: RAP (ABAP RESTful Application Programming Model) and CAP (Cloud Application Programming Model). CAP vs RAP isn’t a binary, zero-sum choice. There are compelling cases on both sides, and both frameworks can serve purposes in the same landscape.

There are some good reasons to think about CAP. In my limited use, I’ve appreciated:

• CDS is a sane and powerful way to expose data to your application

• Everyone sorta does JavaScript these days, and there’s a Node flavor of CAP

• The development flow is strongly influenced by modern web development, which - in theory - should enable adoption by folks with fewer deep old-school SAP skills

But when I feel out the vibes lately, RAP seems to be on the rise (on the RISE?) and CAP - while climbing - isn’t on a rocket of growth. I’m thinking that a TON of work in the next few years will be porting old ABAP code over to S/4. And when you get to S/4, teams will still be accustomed to delivering ABAP-shaped things.

On sheer person-hours of SAP community developer effort, this will keep the scales tipped toward RAP. The framework choice isn’t zero-sum, but developer person-hours are. The pile of things to do in the ABAP space will probably keep RAP in the center for years to come. PM